What’s stopping you from bundling products? Are you worried the launch isn’t worth the payoff? Well, what if I told you that launch efforts aren’t necessary because, when done right, bundled items drive unbeatable organic traffic. In this episode of Entrepreneur Adventure, we’re chatting with bundling expert Kristin Ostrander as she breaks down other bundling secrets that shot her straight to $1.2 million in sales. Stay tuned.

Get $50 OFF The Amazon Wholesale Bundle System Here Using Promo Code TODD50

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Show Notes

Bundling 101

As a full-time stay-at-home mom, Kristin quickly realized that if she wanted a full-time income, she’d need to work from home. Searching for an at-home side hustle led to e-commerce which led to Amazon and retail arbitrage. When she realized shipping multiple items in one box meant fewer fees and higher margins, she was hooked on bundles. 

In short, bundling means placing multiple complementary items in one package. Customers will usually pay a premium for the convenience of ordering everything all together. When you’re starting with bundles, there’s an infinite amount of product categories which means an infinite amount of bundles so the sky is truly the limit. 

Hit The Sweet Spot & Stop Hijackers

Kristin recommends bundling between 3-5 products because products frequently go out-of-style. Staying small helps you stay agile. Not to mention, Kristin mixes different brands to stave off competition. She also recommends adding a value-add product like a custom flyer or anything you have access to that others won’t. 

Why There’s No PPC Required

When you really research a product, you’ll know what keywords customers search for and you’ll know what components to include. Amazon does a great job matching people with the products they’re actually searching for so skip the pricey PPC. Kristin also recommends checking out product reviews. What are customers saying about the product? How do they use it? What do they wish came with it? Sometimes reviews hold priceless data. 

Sell What You Know

Maybe it’s fishing, maybe it’s video games, maybe it’s makeup. Whatever it is, use your knowledge bank to your Amazon advantage when it comes to optimizing listings and perfecting bundles. And remember, you don’t need big brands to make big bucks. Think about the last product you bought online. Chances are, you won’t recognize the name on the label.

Commitment & Consistency

At the end of the day, success is about commitment and consistency. So commit to Amazon for six months and work consistently. If you’re consistent with your effort, you’ll see consistent results. 

Overall

Kristin’s video-based course covers everything from Amazon basics to creating master bundle spreadsheets and custom packaging training. Check out Kristin’s course and get a $50 discount with the coupon code TODD50. 

Did this encourage you to begin bundling? Let us know on Facebook.

Happy selling everybody.

Resources From This Episode

• Mommy Income
• Kristin’s Amazon Wholesale Bundle course
• Helium10
• MerchantWords
• Restock Pro
• Contact Kristin
• Listen to The Amazon Files
• Connect on Facebook

Outline of This Episode

[00:18] Todd’s introduction to this episode

[02:57] Meet Kristin

[10:02] Bundling 101

[14:25] How to avoid hijackers

[21:44] Why research trumps PPC

[27:45] Finding your niche

[48:49] Commit to the top

[54:00] Todd’s closing thoughts on this episode

Transcript

Announcer (00:01):
Welcome fellow entrepreneurs to the entrepreneur adventure podcast, where we talk about Amazon wholesale and how you can use it to build an eCommerce empire, a side hustle or anything in between. And now your host, Todd Welch.

Todd (00:18):
What is going on everybody. I’m your host, Todd Welch, and welcome to another edition of the entrepreneur adventure podcast. Today I have on Kristin Ostrander from mommy income, and she is here to teach us how to do and sell bundles on Amazon. She calls it the Amazon wholesale bundle system, and she is doing over $1.2 Million in sales, on Amazon, just selling bundles. And that is with an ROI average of around hundred percent. So she’s doubling her money on every bundle that she’s selling. I have dabbled a little bit in doing some bundles on Amazon, like multi-packs and a few different products bundled together, but I haven’t really dove into it, nothing near what Kristen has done. So I’m really learned a lot from this episode, listening and talking to her, and I think you will learn a lot as well. It’s a whole nother aspect to selling on Amazon, and it can really help separate you from other people because when you’re creating a bundle, you’re basically creating your own listing, creating your own product.

Todd (01:38):
And I thought you would have to do a lot of launching and stuff like that. But as we find out in this podcast, that’s not necessarily the case. If you do it right, you can launch a new bundle and not have to spend a ton of money on PPC and launching a new product like you would in the private label world. So if you’re coming from the private label world, this is going to be a lot easier than launching and creating your own product. If you’re coming from the wholesale world, this may be an area that you could specialize in and really separate yourself from the pack, get those high margins and high ROIs that we’re all really looking for. So definitely think wherever you’re coming from, you’re really going to love this episode. We dive into the meat of building bundles and Kristin is definitely an expert in this space in selling wholesale bundles on Amazon.

Todd (02:31):
So definitely stay tuned. The show notes for this are over at entrepreneuadventure.com/ 33. And she also has a wholesale bundle course that you can check out entrepreneuradventure.com/ bundles for that. And she gave us a $50 off coupon code, Todd 40. So T O D D 40. And without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into this episode with Kristen.

Todd (02:57):
All right. So I have Kristen Ostrander on, she is a serial entrepreneur, a podcast and a speaker, but she also has co-founded mommy income, which is a website that teaches you how to build bundles and sell them on Amazon. So that’s why we’re bringing her on the show today to really dive into bundling. It’s a whole nother route. In addition to wholesale, it kind of works really good alongside that, that we can sell on Amazon. So, Kristen, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background, how you kinda got in started in e-commerce and how you found your way to amazon.

Kristen (03:39):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. So let’s start to beginning. My husband and I was married very young. My husband, I high school sweethearts. He’s a little bit older than me, but we got married very young and I was in college and ended up having our first child he’s in commercial construction. And so it was always in Michigan. It’s always feast or famine. You’re either working a ton of hours or there’s no work left. So I knew that I had to help, you know, bring some income into the family. And I first took a waitress job with my little one and still try to do school. And we just felt like ships passing in the night and we didn’t want that life for us, for our family, for each other. So I was looking for another way I could make money, but still stay at home.

Kristen (04:19):
And so I actually discovered eBay. It was very early on. This was a long time ago, about 2002, 2003 or so. And I ended up selling, having my second child. And then I, the first thing I sold on e-commerce was just to kind of I have sold my daughter’s fufu Easter dress. It was something that they were one time and then it just sits there and it’s expensive. And so I thought, well, maybe I can sell that and get her some summer clothes. And so I was just looking into not necessarily making money, but how can I just use my resources and be a little bit thrifty and try to, you know, make ends meet that way. But I ended up, you know, right away being like, wow, that sold really fast. And I got a little bit more on the auction than I thought.

Kristen (05:04):
So I traveled down the road of selling my kids’ toys and their clothes. And when I ran out of that, I thought, what can I do next? And so I went, so I was at the local dollar store with my two very young children and I discovered a DVD. And again, remember this was a long time ago and I just discovered a name brand DVD for a dollar at the dollar store. So I bought all of those and figured maybe I could sell them for $5, $6 on eBay, turns out they were selling for about $15 each. So I got bit by the retail arbitrage bug, if you will. At that time, I had no idea what it was. I was just buying and selling. And then I proceeded to go to yard sales, sell some things there. And that was probably about five years strong.

Kristen (05:46):
And then I stumbled upon a website as I was learning to grow my eBay business and maybe trying to get some wholesale stuff going. I found a website talking about selling on Amazon 2008. And so this was again, very early on, so much has changed since then, but I could sell books and I could send them all into Amazon and Amazon would ship them to my customers, the FBA program. Right. And I did that. The first book sold the day it got there. Then I sat in the first shipment and one of the books sold the first day. And I kind of hadn’t looked back since I’ve been selling on Amazon. Now, since then it started with books and thrifting and moved on into retail, arbitrage and wholesale. And of course now doing wholesale bundles

Todd (06:26):
Very nice. So kind of a nice long journey, starting with eBay. Like a lot of people start selling on eBay and then make that transition in the Amazon. Sometimes I wonder who still sells on eBay, but I do a little bit, but Amazon has really taken over, but yeah, so it sounds like a really good journey and going to Amazon. And so how much, you don’t have to give a number or anything like that, but what kind of Amazon volume are you doing?

Kristen (06:54):
You looking for revenue numbers or you know, things like that we’re at about 1.2 million per year in reve nue. So far in the last about two and a half, three years building up.

Todd (07:04):
Yeah. I not necessarily number or anything like that. You never know what people like to share, but I appreciate you sharing that very much. So about 1.2 million very similar to what I’m doing. I’m doing about 130,000 per month in sales right now. And mine is pretty much all wholesale. I’ve dabbled a little bit in bundles, but nothing is extravagant as what you do. And that’s on your mommyincome.com website where you’re teaching people how to do that kind of stuff. So give us a little bit more information about, you know, what made you start mommy income and what that whole sale system is about.

Kristen (07:44):
Great. So back in 2013 or so I, you know, had several, you know, about five years of Amazon under my belt and Facebook groups were very up and coming and I joined an Amazon Facebook group. And then I was sharing comments and helping people and someone invited me to be part of their live streaming webcasts at the time. And so I got in there and shared a little bit of my story and then shared a little bit about what I know. And, and then a couple of people came out of the woodwork. I’d never heard of and said, you need to do your own show. You are a wealth of information. And I happen to love being on that live show at that time. It was just something I never done before. And I absolutely loved it. So I thought, Oh, I’ll just take the leap in that.

Kristen (08:25):
I bought Mommy income domain a long time ago. I think it was right around when I started Amazon. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. It actually just came to me and I was like, I’m just going to buy that domain. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that at this point. Maybe I’ll, you know, teach people at some point, but I’d never done that. So I just didn’t know. And then once that Facebook thing came about and the live show came about, I thought that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. It was like, my purpose seemed to be revealed at that time. And so,uI went ahead and bravely decided to do a show and mommy income, just teaching people like what I knew about Amazon. And I did the live show. I committed to one year, once a week for a whole year. And then I would reevaluate whether or not this was something I wanted to do or whatnot. And I ended up being everything I love and helping so many people and then started to do courses and classes. So that came about just from my successes and things I found on Amazon that that really has changed our lives.

Todd (09:21):
Very good. Yeah. I always appreciate it when people are willing to help others, you know, especially a lot of free content and stuff like that, that of course leads into paid content. Cause it’s, you know, you gotta make some money of course, to keep doing. You can’t do it for free forever, but that’s how I got my start was learning from people like Scott Voelker and PatFlynn and stuff like that. And that’s why I’m doing this kind of stuff giving back as well. And I’m sure that’s probably a similar reason for you. So it was really awesome that you do that kind of stuff. Tell us more about like bundling, how does bundling work on Amazon?

Kristen (10:02):
So I did make in bundling because when I started to get into wholesale, like many people, I came from retail arbitrage and like many people you think, okay, I’m going to break through and I’m going to get into wholesale. I don’t know how, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to give it a shot. So there was something we were kept selling out of. It was a popular toy at the time. And so we reached out to the manufacturer and asked for a wholesale account and they said, sure, no problem. Here’s the account, here’s our catalog. And we were greatly disappointed in the margins. We could almost get it for the same price or cheaper at Walmart or at Meijer or someplace that was running a sale. And so we were extremely shocked and disappointed at the wholesale margins that we were seeing from some of these companies.

Kristen (10:44):
But what I also found was if you can, you know, if you buy this thing for $3 and can sell it for, you know, six on Amazon, you’re kind of breaking, even at that point. What can we do to maybe make this a little bit more valuable? So what if we put a set together? And so that could increase cause then you’re paying one fee or shipping in one box you’ve got the work for one bundle is, you know, similar to the work that you do for a single unit item. So I thought maybe we could increase our profits that way, make this little gift set. So we made a couple of toys with a carry case as the first bundle that we put together. We also did a grocery bundle at the same time. It was a variety of granola bars. And that came about because my family,uOh, we got to go to the hospital and we buy this big, you know, multipack of granola bars, but there’s always this one flavor that nobody likes.

Kristen (11:34):
And I thought, what am I going to do with these? They’re good. They’re they’re not expired. What do I do? And so I created a bundle pack with this off flavor and a couple other flavors I find at the grocery store and that flew off the shelf. So I thought there’s something to this bundle, but I’m still doing retail arbitrage at that time with the bundles because the wholesale prices were sad or in grocery, it’s really hard to get wholesale prices and the margins are thin. But when I combined the wholesale with the bundles, I realized the margins could double or triple and people would actually pay a premium for only having to add one thing to their cart instead of shop around to buy two, three, four different things. And so as I was putting more bundles out there and putting highly complimentary items together, I was seeing this increase in profit margin, increase in price. And other people were kind of too lazy to hijack my listings at first. And so it was really kind of a midas touch era of building bundles at that time when I first started.

Todd (12:31):
Okay. Very good. And how long ago was that when you first started doing bundles?

Kristen (12:35):
About six years now, since we started doing bundling at five, five or six years.

Todd (12:40):
And so how are things going for people who are just starting out bundling now? Is it too saturated or is there still a lot of room in there to grow?

Kristen (12:50):
I feel like the sky is the limit with bundles. And the reason for that is because there are so many different product categories to sell in. There’s so many different opportunities to create bundles that are super convenient. And let’s go over that really quickly because for those of you guys that don’t know what a bundle is, it’s a bundle a kit, a set, a gift basket these types of things, and the whole premise of it is to make it very convenient and fast for your customers to buy what they need. So you put highly complimentary items together in the same package, whether it’s a gift set or you’re just selling a shampoo and conditioner is still considered a bundle. And if you’re putting these things together, it makes it easier and faster for your customers to find what they need. Add it to the cart, not have to shop around for too many things. And it’s all, you know, just all in one convenient pack. So it’s beneficial for the customer and for you as far as your margins go. So making sure that you’re doing highly complimentary items and because of the categories that are open, you can sell everything from auto part accessories to toys, to baby items, to home and kitchen grocery. The sky really is the limit in the number of bundles or the types of variety packs that you can create.

Todd (14:01):
Okay. So a lot of the bundles that I’ve done in the past have been like multi-packs is the same product or maybe two, a couple items put together from the same brand. So nothing too in depth, how are you building your bundles? Are you putting like five, 10, 20 different things together from different brands? Or how are you working that?

Kristen (14:24):
So one of the best ways to put a bundle together after doing this for many years is three to five items is the sweet spot. And the reason we say that is because every wholesaler knows, everybody knows buying a catalog, buying products from catalogs, wherever it is, every year trends come and go, popularity comes and goes and things can be discontinued. If you’ve got a ton of items in your bundle and you get a couple of those or even one that’s discontinued. Now you have to shift gears little bit. And so it’s can be very frustrating year over year, but is there anyone who’s been on Amazon that long? They know the life cycle of a product is generally a two year max. I mean, things come and go so quickly. There’s things that are improved and packaging changes or things like that. So usually your product life cycle, no matter bundles or wholesale or whatever is a couple of years long.

Kristen (15:13):
And then you have to, you know, do something different or you have to bring something new to the table. And so same thing happens with bundles, but in the midst of that, if you just create a bundle, that’s great. And somebody discontinues, one of the items it’s real frustrating to have to replace those. So keeping it smaller makes it a lot easier to keep up with. That’s probably one of the biggest pain points of bundling is, is the discontinued items if they have it. And so keeping in mind when it comes to those things, that three to five items in a bundle is probably the sweet spot.

Todd (15:43):
Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, you wouldn’t have want to have a ton of stuff. And then one thing is out of stock for a while, so you can’t sell your whole bundle. So the lower amount, the less risk you’re going to have of that.

Kristen (15:56):
So to answer your other question, I know that was kind of a twofold question you asked. The other question about the bundles is, you know, kind of differentiating yourself and how do you build a bundle? You know, how many items that goes in it and mixing brands and mixing vendors. That’s one of the key strategies for separating yourself from competition and worrying about hijackers and things like that is to mix brands and mix vendors. So if you’ve got something great from one vendor and mix it with another, it makes it a lot harder for someone to come along and say, Oh, that’s all by the same vendor. And I can get that same setup too. And pretty soon you’ve got 10 people on your listing and you know, there goes your profit. The other thing that we do, and I especially teach in my course is I’m putting a value add item in your bundle.

Kristen (16:42):
So an example of something like that would be, you have a, it could also be, it could be your custom packaging. Could it sets you apart and prevent hijackers from jumping on your bundle. But also it could be something that you create. So you could go to think about a promotion company, for example, the promo swag that people get all the time and you can make something, create something yourself, or use something that you customize in order to the compliments, your bundle. So we don’t want to just randomly, I’ve seen people do this and it’s such a bummer. Randomly put their branded mince with everything they sell, just so that other people don’t jump on it, but that does not create value for the customer. It just helps the seller not have hijackers. And that’s not the goal of selling. The goal of selling is to make a profit and make our customer happy. So they continue to buy from you. And so that strategy, although it’s similar as, not the same at all, so creating something of value or adding something of value that either if it’s a private label item or something you create or something you get from somewhere that no one else can get hands on and put that within your bundle so that it is competition proof. And I have done this for many years and I do not have listing hijackers because of that. Very reason.

Todd (17:58):
Interesting. So just off the top of my mind, you could maybe hire someone on Fiverr to create like a copywrited flyer or booklet that maybe compliments the bundle, somehow throw that in there, and then nobody can copy that, right. Especially if you copyright it,

Kristen (18:16):
Especially. Yeah. And that’s one of the things that a lot of people are doing. So I’ve had some clients that have had, they create grocery bundles, but within that grocery bundle, they send a recipe card that’s specific to something they’ve created or a, how to guide of how to use something. And if it’s physical and if it’s something like that, then you know, it’s very difficult to duplicate that it’s very difficult to, for someone else. And honestly, the people that are trying to hijack your listings don’t want to work that hard. They’re already lazy enough if they’re copying off of you. So to go the extra mile, to find something laminated or produce it, or have it produced and all that, they just skip over it and go to the next person. So how to guides or checklists or tips for use recipes, things like that, that really compliment whatever it is that you’re selling is really helpful for the customer. And it also prevents that competition from coming in and sets you apart. And the customer really feels like they’re getting that extra value, even though that item might’ve only cost you a dollar to produce. They are looking at that as a 10 or $12 value that they’re getting this little, how to guide to be able to utilize their products in the best way. And so it’s kind of a win win for both.

Kristen (19:29):
Yeah, for sure. Now earlier you said that the, you know, the margins were really low when you first started trying to do wholesale, which we do run into that a lot. That’s probably the hardest thing in the wholesale world to kind of push through. So what kind of margins are we looking at in the bundling world?

Kristen (19:46):
Well, it really just depends on what you’re selling, but honestly I don’t take less than a hundred percent. So I want to make a hundred percent on my money. If I’m spending $10, I want my $10 back. If I’m spending 50, I want my 50 back, but you know that as the profit number. And so obviously different sizes and different things that you bundle are going to affect what that is. And if you’re selling an oversized item, which I do a lot of, because most people are scared of the fees or the size or whatever. But I find that there’s a lot, a lot of people are willing to pay extra money for bigger things. They understand that it’s expensive to ship those and you know, things like that. So it’s really been beneficial, but I’m looking at those margins, knowing that when you can put those things together, customers will pay a premium to not have to continually shop around and, you know, time is money, right?

Kristen (20:37):
And so their time is more valuable to the Amazon buyer to have something delivered to their door and all in one package. And so that’s really the important about that margins. You know, I see everybody in the clients and people I work with go all the way from a 50% profit margin or ROI all the way up to a hundred or more, there are many, many of our bundles that are over that 100% Mark. And we aim to make at least $5 per item per bundle that we sell. Occasionally we don’t below that. If it’s something that’s fast moving, because we also pay a prep center facility that prepares all of our bundles for us. So we don’t store or work with any inventory in house.

Todd (21:17):
Okay. Very good. So one of the, I’m drawing a blank on the word at the moment, but one of the things that people say that the reason a bundling is not necessarily a good idea is because it’s basically like making your own private label product and on Amazon today to launch a product and getting it selling, it’s just really difficult and probably not worthwhile. So what do you say to people who say that kind of stuff,

Kristen (21:44):
Most Important thing to remember about bundling as you need to, it’s the same thing as any other product you need to do the research ahead of time and sell what customers are looking for. And with all of the research tools out there, I personally love helium 10 and merchant words for those for different reasons and different ways that I use them to be able to do the research, to see what customers are searching for. And there are some things out there that are just a match made in heaven. Like, you know, if you’re a fishermen, for example, if you fish, there are tons of things that you buy on a regular basis to make your experience, you know, what you need it to be. There’s all kinds of things. And so usually fishermen just don’t go buy one thing at a time. They want to buy a lot of tackle.

Kristen (22:27):
They want, they need line, they need a new reel. They need whatever it is that they need. And that’s a,uwhether you’re doing fly fishing or bass fishing or whatever it is, there’s a niche for each one of those. And then products that go along with that and who really just buys one lure or one thing of this, you know, having a customized package would really enhance your experience, but also you can see the value and not having to cherry pick all those things and instead, just add them all to your cart at once. And so I think it’s really important to pay attention to that side of things. But let me talk about launching a product. The key thing to remember is that you’re selling what people are already looking for. So you don’t have to have a huge launch campaign.

Kristen (23:10):
I do not use PPC on my bundles when they first start out. I only results at PPC. If I’m trying to move something seasonal and it’s coming to the end of the rope, and I really just want to kind of move that inventory. So I don’t have to stock it next year, but if you’re doing your research properly, if you’re building your listing with the keywords that customers are already searching for, it’s not difficult to get traffic to your bundle. You do not have to do this big launch campaign and, you know, emails and, and trying to do drive traffic from other places. Amazon does a really good job at matching people with the products that they’re searching for. Somebody is looking for fly fishing, you know, accessories, and your bundle comes up because the first thing it says is fly fishing accessories, and then list all the things that with it. You’re going to end up on page one naturally because you’re typing in and your listing States, exactly what customers are typing in. And that’s the kind of stuff and research we can get from helium 10 and merchant words and those.

Todd (24:09):
Okay. Very nice. So you’re, you’re just looking for complimentary products and probably making sure there’s not other bundles out there similar to that. And so yours was just kind of naturally rise to the top. I’m surprised to hear that you don’t do any PPC or no launching, like given the way to get reviews and stuff like that. It’s just kind of all organic.

Kristen (24:31):
It’s getting more difficult in these days because Amazon has really been pushing PPC. And so they want you to spend money on that. But the reality is that you can get organic searches. And this is actually just happened as a few weeks back for me, we launched a brand new bundle. And when I say launch, all we did was create the listing and send it into Amazon sold the same day and has been selling since. And there’s zero PPC on it, not in the top 100. It’s something that we created by seeing and watching trends and realizing there’s a market for this, but there’s no products that meet this need. It’s a basic supply and demand when, especially when it comes to bundles and looking at one of the best ways to get ideas for bundles is to take a single item you’re considering selling maybe something from your wholesale store or your catalog and say, okay, well, this is a best seller for me.

Kristen (25:22):
What do I do? You go to that product page, you read the reviews and you see what customers are telling you about this product. Because nine out of 10 times, you’re going to find at least several of those reviews that say, I wish this came with this, or they’ll say, this is how I use it. This is how it’s been working for me. And you get these ideas of, Oh my gosh, this person uses this in the bathroom. I never thought of that. And then here’s some other products that would actually enhance the use of that. So there’s a little bit of creativity involved, but there’s a lot of data out there to look and discover what customers are already saying that they want, especially if it’s not Available.

Kristen (26:00):
Yeah, for sure. I Amazon’s a gold mine. You know we just had the Amazon news where Amazon is using people’s data from their products to create their own products, which my response to that was, well, of course it’s been going on forever since the Dawn of retail, but we’re basically kind of flipping those tables and using that data for our own purposes to make our own products. So yeah, the, the reviews is a good idea. Do you use like down below there,uthe frequently sold with, I’m sure you use that as well.

Kristen (26:35):
Absolutely. A great place. You know, if it makes sense, a lot of people with bundling, you have to ask the questions who, what, when, where, why and how who’s going to use this, who are going to, who’s going to use these products, how are they used? How are they used together? Will it be a gift? Are, is the purchaser of the end user? Are they giving it away or using it and answering all those questions will help determine what components are best suited for that product and that bundle. So making sure that you pay attention to that frequently bought together is a great resource to be able to do that. But sometimes it doesn’t make as much sense. I’ve seen people buy cereal with toilet paper. So clearly you have to kind of use your best judgment with that and kind of really ask yourself, who’s going to be using this. How are they going to, what, you know, what problem are you going to solve? Or what need are you going to meet with your new bundle? It’s the very same thing you would ask if you’re doing a private label product, you’ve got to do all the research ahead of time before you decided to jump in.

Todd (27:28):
Yeah, for sure. So it sounds like it’d be a good idea to target a market that you’re familiar with in some way, either it’s a hobby, like do or a job that you’ve done before or something that, you know, kind of the lingo and things that go together is that usually what you recommend for people.

Kristen (27:45):
Matter of fact, like in the wholesale bundled system, as part of our 12 step framework, that number one thing is finding a niche or finding something within your knowledge bank. So you have to go through this knowledge bank exercise to kind of extract more because most people think, Oh, I don’t have any hobbies. I don’t have any, you know, experience, but when you’re asked certain questions, you realize that you do have life experiences. You do have things you’ve went through jobs. You’ve had classes, you’ve gone to hobbies that you’ve had over time. And there’s always, always, always products around any old thing that you can think of. And there’s always a following, even if it’s this big for every niche under the sun. So digging into that is literally the first step for going through bundles is starting with what you know, because a lot of people are like, Oh, Q4 is coming. Let’s sell toys, except for they don’t have any kids. They don’t watch any TV. They have no idea what the toys are. What’s popular. They’re just like people who buy toys for Christmas. So I want to sell toys and it ends up, you ended up falling on your face when you do that, because you don’t have the competitive advantage of having little people and knowing what it is that they enjoy and all the popular movies and TV shows and things like that. So starting with what you know is essential for successul bundling.

Todd (28:59):
Yeah. I imagine the more obsure, the thing is that, you know, something about probably the better, as long as it’s selling stuff on Amazon, because then it’s less likely you’re going to have competition as well.

Kristen (29:11):
Absolutely. You know, I had a client once that was super into like the Dungeons and dragons trading card kind of thing. And he played so much that he invented a product that would literally help all these other people in his niche to do this more efficiently to organize the cards more efficiently, whatever else. And he showed me this thing and I was like, Oh my gosh, whatever that is, that’s, you know, he showed me how it works. And I was like, well, that’s really cool. And I would have no idea what that is, but it sold so quickly that had actually invest in a bigger manufacturer to make these things for him. Cause he was kind of making them on his own and selling them. And they took off because he knew his niche. He knew these people would love this. He knew how to describe it. He knew the keywords to be able to bring people in, to look at the listing and using his knowledge bank. He never once had to pay for an ad or PPC. And just kind of grew that item. So using your knowledge bank is super important.

Todd (30:06):
Very nice. That is awesome. One tip you might want to try on the PPC from one of our previous episodes with Bernard over at PPC Maestro is make a 5 cent auto campaign. Or you just add all of your products in there. I did that and I’ve spent like $30 and sold like 5,000. It’s a, it might be something worth trying that I know, but

Kristen (30:29):
That’s funny that you say that. Cause I do know that trick and that’s the only PPC campaign that I ever run and I revamp it like twice a year and add any new products to it, but oftentimes it’s on the calendar. So it’s kind of an automatic thing that admin takes care of. But so every, you know, every six months, all the new bundles are added to that. The 5 cent click. Yeah. That’s been going on for several years. When I said using PPC, I met more of like, you know, the giveaways and a lot of PPC people that I’ve spoken with have suggested a hundred percent ACOS in order to kind of get your item moving. And I just, that that has not been something I’ve participated in, but the 5 cent click is,uthat’s well worth it. I think the cost of that is like 1.3, 4%. And the sales versus how much you spend is amazing for just those little tiny sales that you wouldn’t even pay attention to, but that’s definitely a moneymaker. So all of the PPC, that’s the number one thing I would recommend other than that tip to organic stick to keywords and attributes, cause that will sell your product faster.

Todd (31:30):
For sure. For sure. Now this one’s a little bit higher level question for myself because I run into this is with my inventory management software, they currently don’t have the ability to bundle products from different brands, different suppliers. So how are you handling that in terms of keeping track of your inventory and stuff like that?

Kristen (31:53):
So because of that same problem and it’s probably the same software I was looking into at the time when we, we won’t name names, but I definitely think I know what you’re talking about. And that, that was one of the reasons why we couldn’t use an inventory management software like that because we are mixing many, many vendors within bundles and it makes it difficult. So we kind of created our own system to be able to do that. So we have what was called our trends report and I created this trends report because it was, there were sales slipping through the cracks because things weren’t getting ordered on time and there would be components missing because piecing all the things together. And so we created a complete system within Google drive of folders of vendors and, you know, automatic, you know, templates that are created to make POS and then each ASEN.

Kristen (32:40):
Our admin goes through each ASEN and goes forward with how many things, you know, need to be ordered from each ASEN and you know, it automated software. It might be great, but there’s nothing that fits our model right now. So anyone listening, if you’re a software creator, let’s talk that would be great to automate that, but I’m using a VA has really helped us do that because then the orders come in and they’re all separated on a master sheet. So each bundle has a vendor name and the master sheet of how many components go in each one. And then from the trends report of what to order each week goes on there. And then they create the orders from there. And so it makes it it’s a lot more streamlined before we were losing a lot of money to lost sales because of out of stock items or something being forgotten. And so we kind of created our own system to, to correct that problem.

Todd (33:26):
Okay. Very good. Well, yeah, and I use restock pro, so we can name the name. I’ve talked to hobby in the past. Their software is good. I’m not knocking them really at all. They just don’t have the ability to add bundles from different suppliers. And so I’ve been on a hunt actually looking for software that can help me manage my warehouse. Cause now I have a warehouse and their software doesn’t do that side very well. And they’re really, I haven’t found anything. I’ve liked demos, tens of different softwares that are out there for doing it and haven’t found it. So I might have to go your route and create my own system as well. Is that something that if people buy your course, you teach them how to do that system?

Kristen (34:09):
Absolutely. We give them a templates to be able to create their own master bundle spreadsheets and then be able to use the trends report, whether they do it themselves or hire it out to be able to just, I mean, the idea here is me as an owner now after creating that system and having put in place and working out the kinks, my main job is to look at the trends, reports and decide what’s going to be ordered and then buy a certain color code on that sheet. Then my admin knows that that’s what they order and they know how to do all that. And so my main job is to just pay attention to the numbers, create new bundles and do the research. And then all the rest of the stuff is done by someone else. So the goal there is to go in and look at what you feel needs to be reordered or discontinued or, you know, change a listing or whatever it is because as you see those weeks stacking up, they say, Oh, this one used to sell 20 units a day.

Kristen (35:01):
And now we’re down to five units a day. There’s a red flag here. And so looking at it that way and looking at it as a big snapshot, but also a weekly snapshot, you can see that there’s been changes and it gives you an immediate awareness of a listing. That’s either doing better than you expected or worse than expected. And you can start looking at as they’re more competition, are there better prices out there is the listing missing something then all of a sudden reduced sales. So it really gives you this big picture about what’s going on with particular items in your store and helps you make very quick repurchasing decisions or reordering decisions when it comes to that. And then the ordering handles, you know, is handled after that.

Todd (35:39):
All right, very good. And how much are we looking at for that wholesale bundle course?

Kristen (35:44):
Wholesale bundle course is 497. And that it’s a full video based course. It also comes with transcripts. There’s a lot of downloads and templates and things like that in there,uto be able to help it also now comes with our custom packaging training. Cause one of the main things Amazon is pushing right now is expecting those who are creating new listings or new products like that to create some sort of brand. Now this is separate from brand registry, but it can tie in a little bit later. The idea there though, is that they’re asking now if you’re creating bundles and then, you know, either needing your own UPC codes or GTI and exemptions for custom made type things, they’re expecting you to be more professional and have a custom packaging. And so I felt it necessary to be able to create a custom packaging training,uto help people do that.

Kristen (36:31):
Because of course you could just be an Amazon seller. You could have started with retail arbitrage. I knew nothing about creating custom packaging. So Amy and I, before she retired, made this video training to help people understand the lingo, understand where to shop for these types of things how to ask for the right files if you’re getting logos made and things, because this can be great to most people if you’ve never tried it. And so there are even very quick ways you can get, you know, a polybag made with your brand on it. I mean, I just did this recently. I mean, it’s just my mommy income logo, but you know, this is as simple as Amazon could ask for, and this is completely approved for Amazon selling, having your logo permanently fixed on your packaging. So that’s just an element there. So the course now comes with that as well because it’s just an essential part of creating bundles.

Todd (37:19):
Okay. Very nice. And I know you are giving our listeners a $50 off the course, if they’re interested in that at all, the coupon code for that is going to be Todd 50. So T O D D 50, and I’ll make a short link entrepreneuradventure.com/bundles. And that’ll take people right over to the course, if they’re interested in checking that out and we’ll put all the info in the show notes and stuff like that. And we can talk a little bit more about the course, but I wanted to dive into that. What you just mentioned with Amazon, like, what is Amazon’s thoughts on us creating bundles? Do they, are they okay with it or are they get angry about that?

Kristen (38:03):
They have a whole bundling policy. As a matter of fact, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of rules spelled out there. And as part of the coursewe go through that very early on in the course to be able to tell people these are Amazon’s rules and this is what you need to stick to. Unfortunately, anybody who’s been selling on Amazon long enough knows that sometimes they have policies that they either don’t enforce or they over enforce, or they, you know, there’s this fine line between this and that or a gray area, or depending on what sales rep or customer service rep you get that day for a seller, they might say one thing, and this is another. So I’m really nailing down and trying ahead of time to make sure you’re above the curve of getting all of the things and all of your duckies in a row to be able to do that is very essential for bundling.

Kristen (38:49):
You know, I play the long game on Amazon and being in business as long as I have, I don’t have time or energy to constantly be working in my business every single day. I wanted something that was going to be a little bit more automated and something that I could foresee being longterm. When I switched from retail arbitrage, it was because I felt like I built myself a prison. I was just constantly shopping and shipping. And there was like, I mean, I was making great money, but was it really worth as 60 or 80 hours a week and shopping around everywhere and a lot of driving and just a lot of, I mean, I’m not scared of work. It was just the type of work that I thought, well, this was fun for a time. And now scaling made that very, very difficult. And so I was looking for something that could be sustainable longterm and eventually automated.

Kristen (39:35):
And of course we didn’t start automated. We started right here in this house full of cardboard, receiving pallets at our residence before we decided to go to a prep center and things that mean all the things to make it, what it is right now. And so, as I’ve grown and learned, I’ve refined the process for other people. I want people to start with automation. I don’t want them to start where I did, where they had to do all of this difficult things. So I think Amazon’s perfectly okay with it, but you must follow the rules. You, you cannot circumvent the rules of restricted products or restricted brands and add them to a bundle and call them something else. I mean, if you’re trying to skirt around rules or, you know, trying to do these black hat type things, I just don’t recommend that your Amazon account is worth way more than you realize if you’re a longterm seller.

Kristen (40:20):
And because of that it’s important to protect it. And so staying away from even black hat practices or get rich quick, kind of, Hey, I’ll just throw a bunch of products on Amazon, hopefully make a, you know, quick million and then, you know, leave. It’s just not that way. And so playing the long game has really helped me with bundles and to refine the systems and processes so that it can be a little bit more automated and Amazon’s always changing the rules. So as the rules change, we update what we need to do and, you know, just continue pushing forward. It’s not always sunshine and rainbows, but it still works.

Todd (40:56):
Yeah. I know of, I have a list of brands that you can’t put in bundles now or get exemptions, right? So have you ran into it where you have been selling a bundle for a while, and then all of a sudden now you can’t have that brand in your bundle anymore.

Kristen (41:12):
And one of the main things that I like to teach people is, and this is, you know, everyone’s results may vary. I don’t always teach. What’s popular. I teach what’s works and what’s worked for me. And, you know, I have, might have a lot of other, you know, big brand sellers that would argue with me, but my goal and personally, this is what I’ve been doing. And also teaching my is to you don’t need a big brand to sell things on Amazon. You don’t need to be Nike or KitchenAid or Disney or Mattel or any of these big brands to be able to sell not only single unit items, but bundles on Amazon every single day, we all purchase items that we could really care less what the brand is. I mean, do you know what the brand is of your last HTMI cord?

Kristen (41:57):
I mean, or you bought a six way powered strip or a surge protector for your house. You know, that’s just something you need. And no one really cares what brand it is. As long as it works, maybe you’re looking at reviews to make sure it’s not, you know, cheap junk, but for the most part, there’s lots of what we consider unbranded type items, or, you know, I don’t want to use the word generic, but let’s just use the word generic for fun. I mean, we’re talking about a perfect match for a bundle would be tarps and bungee cords, for example, like,

Todd (42:28):
Yeah, but I know you love them from your podcasts.

Kristen (42:31):
Yeah. You’re a good listener. So I’m the tarps and bungee cords. Like what are the brands of tarps, bungee cords? Like I bet like 99% of people would be like, Oh no, I just buy a big blue tarp. It’s 10 by 12. Like who cares? But the idea there is that you’re, you’re not worrying about competing all the time with some of these big name brands. People have such a fear that their items aren’t going to sell. If they don’t have some sort of household name brand attached to them. And let’s be real. That is simply not true. Anyway, I challenge anyone here. I’ll let you reach out to me personally if you could prove me wrong, but I challenge anyone here to go through their last six to 12 months of Amazon purchases as a buyer. And how many of those things were things that you, that had nothing to do with brand?

Kristen (43:13):
You just wanted the thing and you didn’t know about the brand and you could care less about it. I mean, you’ll see stuff in my cart. That’s named brand Sony and you know, Nike and some stuff like that for my kids. But you also see many, many generic items like HDMI cords is something that I recently purchased and it was some of these other things. So people are brand loyal on some things, but millions of millions of products sell every minute on Amazon from brands that no one’s heard of and doesn’t care about. They just want that thing. So people search by attribute before they search by brand, unless they’re looking for something like shoes or an iPhone, then that would make sense. So keeping that in mind that you don’t have to be so brand conscious when you’re selling something, you have to sell high quality products that are at a price that people want to pay that are convenient and also meet the need. If your item or bundle specifically bundles meets the need of the customers. They’re less concerned about the brand name of it and more concerned about, Hey, I need all these things that I can add it to the cart right now.

Todd (44:15):
Yeah. I agree. A hundred percent. And I teach people the same thing and that, you know, most of the brands that I sell just regular wholesale, you probably have never heard of, you know, some of them are a little more well known brands in their small niche, but as a whole, most people never get to hear them or hear about them. So it’s definitely the way you want to go of the big brands. You know, you’re just going to get the IP infringement or something else. And have you ever ran into that though? Where like a all fo the sudden that red flag and you get an IP infringement or trademark violation or a brand maybe reaches out to you and says, you know, you don’t have authorization to sell our stuff?

Kristen (44:54):
Because I get permission first. I am upfront with all of my vendors that I create and sell bundles on Amazon. And that is my, all of my intent and purpose to do with their products. And I’ve even courted many vendors for a long time, what was said, no, by presenting them with my listings and saying, you know, your product here, and this is what I’d like to do with it. And I’ve gotten many yeses by doing that. I’m simply to present that for them as a different angle, that I’m not directly competing with them or even their, all their Amazon sellers, because I do things so differently that they’re kind of willing to give it a shot. And I’m always say, Hey, let’s just do this on a trial basis. And if it doesn’t work out, you can always pull the plug on me and that’s fine.

Kristen (45:37):
And most of them are pleasantly surprised at my reorders. And so, and my clients have done the same. And so the reality there is that I don’t recommend anybody trying to skirt around even vendor rules. It’s always best to just be honest. There’s many, many yeses. If you get past the nose, you’re going to get rejected from some people are like, no Amazon sellers ever. Same thing with wholesale, but the reality is that I’m doing things differently and presenting the information to the decision maker, not just the sales rep, who has to give you a canned response you know, giving that is, is definitely the way to go, to get more vendors. And to, just to be honest, I don’t ever recommend anyone, you know, not telling people they’re not they’re selling on Amazon, just so they can put something in a bundle because, you know, be sure you will be found out

Todd (46:28):
Yeah. A hundred percent. And you know, sometimes going with those less known brands too, you know, you call the company, we’re a big company, you’re getting a sales rep or customer service person. And the smaller has Sometimes I’ll just answer the phone. They’ll be like, hello. And you know, you’re on the phone with the owner or whatever. And they may not know anything about selling on Amazon. You can kind of educate them and take them from there. So, all right. Very good. So I think we’ve dove into quite a lot. So if people want to get more information about this, definitely mommy income.com is the place to go. Anything more that people should know about the course as well, if they’re interested in purchasing that

Kristen (47:12):
The course is all video based, it’s all broken up into different modules, starting from, you know, covering, you know, being a legitimate business all the way to starting with wholesale comes with templates of how to even communicate with wholesalers. If you’re unfamiliar with that, there’s some templates there about having the conversation we just talked about with the vendor. If they say no, or they’re not sure presenting that bundle opportunity to them also talking about our, this is our framework here. I know for podcast listeners, they can’t see for video. It’s got our 12 step research process in it to where, how you figure out from your idea all the way to what components and what the prices are and how, how this is going to be. Are you going to invest in it or do you have to start over because it’s not going to be worthwhile. So giving you that step-by-step research process, and then there’s a module about how you create your listing and how you will need to optimize that because the listings, everything, you can have a great bundle, but if no one sees it because your listings bad, you know, then you’ve got a disaster. So all of those different things, how to use a prep center, how to achieve, how to attend a trade show, all these different things. The literally it’s very comprehensive to be able to help people from start to finish build bundles with Wholesale bundles

Todd (48:27):
Okay. Very good. That made me think of a, another question that I had. So what kind of runway are we looking at? So somebody decided they wanted to start and bought the course on average because everybody of course is going to be different. Is it going to take for someone to go from zero to maybe six figures in sales a year?

Kristen (48:49):
That’s a hard question because it depends on how much you can invest, you know, and it depends on how much you can start with, but I’ve seen people start with as little as $300 just to do a test funnel. People even do retail, arbitrage tests, bundles of, if you have a decent amount of money to invest in inventory, that’s where all the money is. You know, you have to have the education, you need to know what you’re doing, but then you also have to purchase products and get them to the table. So I mean, I, if I could ballpark a reasonable investment to start out with you know, a thousand to $3,000 to get started and putting a couple of bundles out there are great. And you know, if your margins are there and you continue to repeat that you continue to build bundles.

Kristen (49:29):
And, you know, I feel like if you have the right investment capital to continue growing your business in the right way, you know, a year or so, what gets you there? It depends on your work ethic. Depends on how much time you have to put into it. If you’re working a nine to five and you’re doing this on evenings and weekends, it’s gonna take you longer. If you’re a stay at home mom, and you’ve got all the time in the world to be able to, I laugh about all the time in the world, stay at home moms. There’s no such thing. I asked me how I know, but if you have a little bit more time on your hands, maybe you’re retired. Maybe you don’t work and you would like to work and you would like to start a business. I think that’s a very reasonable expectation, but it does start, you know, if you’re starting with a hundred dollars, it’s going to take you a lot longer if you’re starting with 10 grand.

Kristen (50:12):
Well, you know, it’s a different story. So you know, just gauging your, the most important thing to remember is not necessarily how fast you can get to a six figure salary. The most important thing is commitment to the learning curve. Commitment to every business takes time to, to develop. It takes time to learn the processes. It takes time to hone your skills and realize what’s working and what’s not working. And then the commitment to say six months to a year. So I’m going to start selling on Amazon and I’m going to start, you know, this wholesale bundles or wholesale or retail arbitrage or whatever you’re doing, and I’m going to do it for an entire year and I’m going to be consistent. I think commitment and consistency is the most important thing in any business. Be consistent, even if it’s once a month, every single month on that day, do the thing be consistent. Cause I think you will see consistent results if you put in consistent effort.

Todd (51:07):
Yup. Yeah. A hundred percent. There’s no get rich quick thing going on here. And you know, people might say, well, a whole year, I need money right now. But if we put it in perspective, if you were to launch like a brick and mortar kind of store, it’s typical for those stores to lose money for like the first three, maybe even four years before they recoup their original investment. So

Kristen (51:34):
No mistake though. I mean, don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that it takes that long to turn a profit. You can turn a profit. The first shipment you sell in you that you said it, and whether you’re doing use books or whatever else, it’s more of a, can you replace your nine to five income? Can you make, you know, can you earn profitably six figures in your pocket rather than just six figures in sales or whatever figure it does not take that long to earn a profit, but you also have to reinvest that and be consistent if you make a hundred bucks this month, but then you don’t send any inventory in. You can’t expect to make that same hundred bucks next month. So whatever that is just understanding, yes, it’s not get rich quick, but you also don’t have to take a loss their first year, if you’re really learning and you’re paying attention and you know, you’re, you’re changing everything. Once you go in and changing each time you learn something new, you can continue to build that profit, but people are profitable immediately if they know if they are trained well and know what they’re doing ahead of time.

Todd (52:32):
Yeah, for sure. That’s, what’s so awesome about eCommerce is you don’t have to go into a hundred, $200,000 in debt to get started and you can actually make money right up front. So, all right. Well, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Any other places you want people to go to if they want to find out more information about you or mommy income?

Kristen (52:55):
So on social, we’re all at mommy income everywhere, whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, wherever you like to hang out. And if you want to go directly to look at the wholesale bundles course, it’s mommy income.com/system. And that’s where you’re going to go right to that page that describes everything that’s included within the system and you know, all the different bells and whistles that come along with it. And so that’s like a direct link to be able to go there again, your coupon code, Todd 50, all caps that’s important and

Kristen (53:26):
Really saved that $50 off there. And I would love to be able to answer any questions if people have questions prior to there’s a contact information on the website at mommy income to reach out if you’ve got any more questions.

Todd (53:39):
Alright, perfect. Kristen. And I really appreciate it. I’m excited to get more into and doing more bundles because I’ve got a lot of products that sell well. And I know that market really well now, so it’ll be pretty easy to kind of put together a bundle. So I’m looking forward to diving in more.

Kristen (53:55):
Awesome. Thanks so much for having me on the show for sure. You have a great one. Thanks.

Todd (54:00):
All right. So there you go. Another fantastic episode, I learned a lot listening to Kristen in that episode and I am definitely going to be doing more wholesale bundles. That’s why I brought Kristen on the podcast to help myself learn more golden nuggets about doing wholesale bundles.

Todd (54:20):
And I want to add this to my repertoire that I already have, right? All my wholesale products. I’ve got my own private label product. I want to do more bundles because I see the opportunity for that in the Amazon space. And I think listening to that episode, if you made it this far, you definitely see the value in the wholesale system. So again, get your $50 off. If you’re interested in buying Kristen’s course, it’s definitely would be worth it. In my opinion, Todd T O D D 40, and that’s at entrepreneuradventure.com/bundles to get to that and check out the course, even if you don’t definitely check out her podcast as well, which we’ll link in the show notes, entrepreneuradventure.com/ 33, where you can get transcripts in the show notes for this episode as well. Or you can just search for her podcast on your favorite podcasting platform.

Todd (55:17):
The name of it is the Amazon files and I actually have it in my Stitcher playlist, my favorites playlist. So I listened to it as often as I can. There’s a lot of golden nuggets in her podcast as well. So hope you got a lot out of this. Let me know in the comments, if you’re on YouTube, what you think of the wholesale bundle system, selling bundles on Amazon, maybe you have already let me know if you have any tips for anyone out there as well, or if you have any questions at all, put them in the comments. If you’re listening to this on podcast, head on over to our Facebook page, you can leave me a comment there. Entrepreneuradventure.Com /Facebook. And as always, I appreciate you all out there listening and subscribing to the show, leave me a review on your favorite podcasting platform. That would be awesome. And I will read it on an upcoming episode as well. So without further ado, this is Todd Welch with entrepreneuradventure signing off happy selling everybody.

Announcer (56:20):
This has been another episode of the entrepreneur adventure podcast. Thanks for listening fellow entrepreneur and always remember success is yours. If you take it.